Welcome to the new year of 2011 and the newly-reformated John Maxwell Blog. As stated in the last postings of 2010, the blog will know feature a new posting daily, something that very obvious when doing a blog. Every day, a posting will note a thought I have for that day. On the weekends, there will be standard features.
Today is the first installiment of the Saturday Story, when I will display a piece of fiction written by me. Today's installiment is titled "Good Day, Fellow Traveler" It was something I wrote a while back in one sitting. It's a short one but it's full of vague meaning and little explaination for anything. No backstory or anything mark it well.
For your reading pleasure, here's the story...
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The many people standing at the door shocked the man who wished to enter through it. He wondered why so many were using a door placed into a brick wall that streched high into the sky. He had talked to someone before about the wall and was told that no one had seen over it except the bricklayer who built it.
The man then asked the stranger why the wall was built. He was then told that the bricklayer left no clue to why the wall was built except that the answer lays beyond the door he built into the wall in case anyone wished to see what was behind the wall. People had gone through the door and few had returned but refused to report what they saw.
The man soon took his place in the line that lead to the door. The man looked ahead and saw a strange man, dressed in a black suit, standing next to the door. Once in a while, the man would open the door and let a person through the door. Everytime the man opened the door, the line got shorter.
The man looked at the people ahead of him in line. The man right in front of him was a shoemaker, carrying a shoe in his hand. The man asked the shoemaker why he was carrying a shoe. He replied that he hoped to give in to whoever needs it on the other side of the door. He had spent his life making shoes for everyone in the land. His son had just taken over the shop and the shoe the shoemaker had was the last one he made with his hands.
The man then turned his attention to the woman right in front of the shoemaker. She looked to be 50, wearing a wedding dress. The man asked the woman why she was wearing a wedding dress. The woman replied that as a young girl, she had been promised to a young baron as a gift.
He was very wealthy and the baron loved the young girl very much. He promised her his land if she were to marry him upon her 18th birthday. The girl agreed to the condition. However, on her 18th birthday, the baron disappeared behind the door and she didn't get the baron's land, which went to a greedy cousin, who wasted it. She then stated that she had waited long to follow her love behind the door.
The man then looked to the man in front of the shoemaker and the old bride. He was a soldier, carrying his sword with him in his belt. The man asked the soldier what he was doing in the line. The soldier then told the man of how he spent his childhood training to join the army to fight the enemy. By the time he was able to, there was no enemy to fight. Soon, an enemy came and the army went into the battle with the soldier.
The soldier made many friends, who the enemy took their lives away. Each friend the soldier lost, the soldier gained a new one. Pretty soon, the soldier had only but one friend. The enemy soon retreated but not without taking the friend with him. The enemy, the soldier then said, had came from behind the wall and the soldier hoped to fight his old foe.
The man soon looked ahead and saw a salesman ahead of the soldier. The salesman told of how he had sold an item to every citizen in the land, including the man. The man remarked why a salesman who sell an object to someone he did not know. He had sold gold to kings and shoes to beggars and even meat to farmers. The salesman replied that he knew everyone in the land so he knew what to give them.
When he ran out of people to give stuff to, his life lost purpose and he wondered the land endlessly. It turns out that the only person the salesman couldn't sell to was himself. He then said that he going to see if anyone on the other side needs a item sold to them and he will give it to them because a salesman lives to sale.
The man soon saw each one of these people walk through the door in the wall. Each one who entered was whispered something by the doorman and when they entered, each was smiling like children. The man wondered what the doorman was telling them. He felt that it was something they wanted to hear. Soon, the man was at the front of the line where he was spoken to by the doorman.
"Good day, fellow traveler." was the phrase the doorman greeted the man with.
The man had heard this spoken to the shoemaker, the old bride, the soldier, and the salesman. The doorman soon looked the man over and then walked over to the man's ear and whispered something. The door was then opened and the man stepped through with a smile. Then the next person stepped up to the door, me.
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The simple wording and simple meaning allow one to draw their own conclusions on what is going on, like a good piece of fiction should do. To explain everything is a mark of bad writing, for giving your readers every piece of detail is not needed. Only give them what they need and they'll draw the conclusions, hopefully the right ones.
I should close by making one further amendment to how the blog will operate from now on. On Fridays, I will have the adventures of Cy and Conrad as I present Life in Hyperion as the Friday feature on the blog, with each story presented as a weekly serial. The first serial will be self-titled and will make a wonderful addition to the blog.
I will now close by saying, "over the wall lays all meaning and nothing" Think about it.
Yours truly, John Maxwell.
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